KAMPALA — The High Court has sentenced Hajarah Nakandi and Abas Musa to death for their roles in the 2018 kidnapping and murder of businesswoman Susan Magara, bringing to a close one of Uganda’s most notorious criminal cases.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Alex Mackay Ajiji also sentenced seven other convicts to life imprisonment after finding them guilty of kidnapping with intent to procure a ransom and the subsequent murder of the 28-year-old.
Magara was abducted on February 7, 2018, near her home in Kampala as she drove to work. During nearly three weeks in captivity, her kidnappers demanded a ransom from her family and, in a gruesome bid to pressure them, severed and delivered some of her fingers as proof that she was still alive.
Despite the family making a partial ransom payment, the captors killed her. Her body was later recovered in Kigo, along Entebbe Road, sending shockwaves across the country and sparking renewed calls for tougher action against kidnapping syndicates.
In addition to the custodial sentences, Justice Ajiji ordered that properties acquired using the ransom proceeds—including motor vehicles and parcels of land—be sold, with the proceeds to be handed over to Magara’s family as compensation.
The ruling concludes a case that drew nationwide attention and prompted security agencies to intensify operations against organised kidnapping-for-ransom networks operating in and around Kampala.
Susan Magara, a daughter of businessman Francis Magara, was remembered as a young entrepreneur whose brutal killing highlighted the growing threat of violent kidnappings targeting wealthy Ugandans. The case became a turning point in Uganda’s law enforcement response to kidnapping and ransom-related crimes.